THE COMMENT: "BREAKING: ANOTHER TAX INCREASE COMING. Phoenix politicians want to raise your taxes AGAIN to pay for their pet projects, even though they've been promising since January that there would be no increases this year. Is this incompetence or intentional dishonesty by city staff?" And: "Liar Liar Pants on Fire: Phoenix politicians are quietly trying to raise your property taxes again, even though they've been promising for months that there would be no increases this year."

THE FORUM: Posts to Twitter on June 4 and June 5.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT: Whether Phoenix is raising property taxes this year and whether former Mayor Greg Stanton and the city manager's office misled taxpayersabout the increase.

Sam Stone, DiCiccio's chief of staff, said in a phone interview that the councilman was specifically referring to the former mayor and to City Manager Ed Zuercher.

In the June 4 post on Twitter, DiCiccio included a picture of the Truth in Taxation notice the city is required to publish that said if the budget were approved, the average Phoenix property owner would see a 2 percent increase in their property tax bill.

Tax going up?

Regarding the first part of the claim, DiCiccio is correct that the average Phoenix property owner will see an increase in his or her property-tax bill.

The process for changing property-tax rates starts in February with the city manager's office determining the revenue required from property taxes to fulfill Phoenix's total revenue needs. The office then projects how property values will change and sets a rate accordingly.

Then, the Maricopa County Assessor's Office determines the exact change in property values, within certain limits set by law. This year, the office determined that the average property value increased by 3.5 percent in Phoenix.

From there the City Manager's Office adjusts the tax rate based on the exact value increase and presents it as part of the budget proposal. That happened on May 8.

Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher(Photo11: City of Phoenix)

This year, because of the increase in property value, the city dropped the primary property-tax rate from $1.3359 per $100 of assessed value to $1.3163, a decrease of nearly 1.5 percent.

Despite the decrease in the rate, the increased property value would still leave the average Phoenix property owner paying 2 percent more in property taxes this year.

Stone said this year's change constitutes a tax increase, despite a reduction in the tax rate.

"Let's say that I make $50,000 this year and $50,000 next year — my income doesn't change no matter what the price of my house does," Stone said. "Because the house value has gone up, but I haven't taken in any more money personally ... the percentage of my money that the city is getting goes up."

At the meeting, Barton told the City Council that the budget was projected to stay balanced for the next five years without a need to cut services or increase taxes.

The video clip in DiCiccio's tweet showed Stanton confirming with Barton that his recommendation at that time was to have "no revenue increases and zero service cuts" for the 2018-2019 budget.

Former Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton(Photo11: Tom Tingle/The Republic)

The January meeting looked at the early status of the city's finances, before the City Manager's Office completed a trial budget for 2018-2019 — and before the public review process started on the budget.

Stone said that Stanton and Zuercher were trying to disguise the tax increase by focusing on the lower tax rate. The tax rate went down, "but property values have gone up so you're generating additional revenues by not dropping that tax rate down to a level that would generate equal revenue year to year."

Barton said an attachment he sent to all council members included a "very detailed" revenue forecast showing the average property owner in Phoenix would be paying more in property taxes as property values increase.

"As your property values increase so too do the city's collections," Barton told the council. "We continue to see (revenue) growth even though we say we are not growing the rate."

DiCiccio was present at that meeting.

The city released a summary for the trial budget in March. The summary said the total tax rate would go down by 2 cents because of the rise in property values,but it did not explain that property tax bills would be higher.

Finally, at a May 22 City Council policy session Zuercher again explained to the council that the property-tax rate will go down while revenues from property taxes will increase.

BOTTOM LINE: DiCiccio was correct that the average Phoenix property owner will see a higher tax bill next year because of decisions the city made when putting together the budget.

But DiCiccio also claimed that Stanton and the City Manager's Office were lying for months and trying to sneak in the tax increase through the budget process. In multiple City Council proceedings and in literature released throughout the year, the City Manager's Office indicated there would be increased revenues in 2019 from property taxes because of the increase in property value.